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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

If you don’t want to pray, that is between you and your God. “But, as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) Successful servanthood requires obedience. Paul was a bondservant of his Lord Jesus Christ and Paul asked for prayer in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:11, and 1 Thessalonians 5:25, to mention just a few instances. James 5:14 instructs believers to request prayer and James 5:16 tells us that it is proper for us to pray for one another. One major problem we have in Christ’s church today is a malformed conformity to the world’s duty of independence. Too many Evangelicals think they can, or must, make it as a lone wolf.

The enemy of our souls delights to convince us that we are individual “super-Christians” whose faith is strong enough that we dare not need anyone else. In fact, the climate is now such that we look and talk down to anyone showing any signs of struggling in his or her walk with God, even if they don’t ask for prayer. Such a church does not resemble the Body of Christ which was purchased with His blood and called to watch and pray until He returns. In the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus prayed that we, His church, be one.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

Ephesians 4:16 says, “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” Speaking of Christ, our redeemer, Ephesians 2:21 goes on to say, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

In conclusion, Christ’s church is not contained within any number of walls. Many argue against ecumenism because denominationalism has somehow taken precedence over Scripture. If we are not one body, we are not one church in one Spirit. Therefore we are neither in The Word nor are we His. I will pray for you all and continue to ask for your prayers to include me. Am I also called to pray in my secret closet? Absolutely! I must meet my Father in the secret place and travail in prayer. However, Matthew 18:19 informs me that there is another dimension added so “that if two of you (us) shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they (we) shall ask, it shall be done for them (us) of my (our) Father which is in heaven.” If we heed God’s Word in its entirety, we shall be prosperous and have good success. (Joshua 1:8) Here is to our success.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from which cometh my help. (Psalm 121:1) What do I see there? At times I see lightening as a hint of the intensity of the only omnipotent God. Neither tsunamis, nor earthquakes, nor hurricanes, nor tornadoes can demonstrate the fullness of His potential. In such phenomena, God, preeminent and eternal, is merely glancing over the horizontal veil of clouds to behold that creation which He so sovereignly saturates and permeates with the awesomeness of His majesty and perfection. God is that infinite continuum of possibility; making “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

God has said, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.” (Deuteronomy 32:2, 3)

Now that we have been saved from the sin of unbelief and believed on the Word that became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14), let us praise Jesus even in the midst of the most violent storms. We will have to cry sometimes, that is a given. Yet, God is our sure anchor and He never slumbers nor sleeps. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” (Psalm 20:7) We have the PROMISES of the One who cannot lie. He sanctifies us by the truth of His trustworthy Word (John 17:17) which even makes the simple-minded wise. (Psalm 19:7) Faith cometh by hearing, therefore, be careful who you listen to (Romans 10:17)…“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20, 21)